Code Platoon Week Ten – Personal Projects

Our aim at Code Platoon is to have students graduate with the tools they need to get a junior role in software development. An important landmark on our road toward that goal is the personal project. We recognize that classroom instruction and curated challenges can teach a lot, but there are still lessons that can only be learned by stepping into a unique project where you’ll need to adapt to the challenges that present themselves along the way. That’s why we dedicate an entire week to letting students develop and deploy their own projects.

Build Something Unique

By now students will have all the skills necessary to build their own projects. They’ll have HTML, CSS and JavaScript to help them build a dynamic and responsive User interface and they’ll have the ability to implement data storage with SQL and Flask on the back end. From there we set them free to create whatever they want. In the past, students have built blogs, e-commerce sites, mapping applications, and chat apps. This is a chance for our students to take what we’ve taught them and explore what interests them. Instructors and mentors will be on hand to provide guidance, but students will do the bulk of the work themselves. The goal is that by the end of the week our students will be able to add a whole new project to their resume.

Brag About Your Work

The last day of the week is presentation day. Students present their applications to the class. Building is a great skill, but knowing how to speak intelligently and clearly about what you’ve built is just as important, especially when hunting for a job. Students will get feedback from instructors and peers on their application and presentation skills. In the end, everyone will vote and awards will be given for the best applications.